By Danny Hughes ´23

Congratulations are in order for senior Joey Heilmann after he broke the pole vault school record. Joey, with a pole vault height of 13 foot 11 and ¼ inches, broke the previous school record set eight years earlier back in 2015 by Chris Grosskopf by almost a foot.

Joey originally joined the track team to do the long jump, but after an injury two weeks before the end of his sophomore season, he was put into the pole vault at sectionals. After only two weeks of practice, Joey got over 10 feet 6 inches. This was two and a half feet over Coach Wazio’s expectations.

Coach Swynenburg, the assistant Brother Rice track coach, said, “The meet was a special invitational with really good competition. The competition was tough since schools from all over the country came to compete. Out of the five guys in the mile, three guys set huge PRs and the other two had really good races. Joe was the highlight since he broke the school record. One cool thing that happened during the meet was when one of the opposing team’s pole vault coaches from Indiana was giving pointers to Joe so that he could improve his form and set the school record.”

Joey Heilmann said, “It was exhilarating. I never thought I would have a chance to break a school record, so when I got over that bar, all the adrenaline rushed through me and it felt like a dream. I had left my mark on a school with such high, athletic standards.”

Shout out to Charlie Walsh, Charley Duggan, Gavin O’Connor, and Andrew Straley for their amazing times in the 1600-meter dash. James Worthington ran a new PR in the 60m dash of 7.35 seconds.

Junior Charley Duggan said, “The race went out a little fast, but that’s nothing I wasn’t used to, and I could’ve stuck in the lead, but I fell off a little towards the 3rd lap. When the bell rang, I picked it up and out-kicked 4 other runners and placed 2nd with a PR. This year so far has started off pretty good, and I believe there is much more ahead.”